European and External Affairs Committee
Subsidiarity Inquiry
Terms of Reference
To scrutinise current arrangements for the subsidiarity monitoring of European proposals, and to establish mechanisms and/or formal arrangements for future collaboration between the National Assembly for Wales and Westminster in line with new protocols attached to the Treaty of Lisbon. To consider, in particular;
how the National Assembly for Wales is notified of European proposals which fall within its legislative competence and the role of the Welsh Assembly Government in this process;
how other legislative regions of the European Union address the issue of subsidiarity monitoring;
how will the new protocol set out in the Treaty of Lisbon impact on formal arrangements in Wales? What would be a suitable period of time within which to scrutinise a proposal and respond to the Westminster Parliament?
what will be the resource implications of a formal agreement between UK devolved legislatures and how might these be addressed?
how might a formal agreement between the devolved legislatures be co-ordinated?
what would happen if Wales determined an EU proposal to be in breach of the subsidiarity principle? And what would be the outcome if the National Assembly and Westminster differed in their views on a proposal?
might subsidiarity monitoring be more adequately done at the European level (through the Committee of the Regions) than at a UK level?
